Ecumenical Evangelical 2: Forum

I never understood why this tractor at Forum had a face...

I've recently started a sporadic and stretched out series, 'When I am an Ecumenical Evangelical', which kicked off with some reflection on my first ever experience of Momentum. Today I want to talk about 'Forum', UCCF's flagship conference. For those who don't know, UCCF is the charity behind many of the UK's Christian Unions, student mission teams on campus. It is a great - if imperfect - organisation, that has been very influential.



I should say at the outset something of my past experience and current reality. I was very grateful to the CU in Nottingham, for friends, fellowship, and opportunities for leadership and mission. It was humbling to meet so many Christians from different churches coming together under King Jesus for the sake of the world. I've kind of never left (much to the chagrin of my sister!) and I've ended up volunteering with UCCF - as an Associate Staff Worker (or ASW) - for Theology Network, the wing of CU's in Theology Departments, which is great fun and very rewarding in Nottingham. So it was in that capacity - but with three years of student mission in the background - that I was at Forum 2013.

The venue, as UCCF types know, is the beautiful 'Quinta', a Christian centre in the Shropshire/Welsh border region, and most delegates camped. Big marquees were put up for the week, for resources, bookstall, main meetings, and some of the smaller meetings. I've been to previous things at Quinta - a Church weekend away, and one Forum Midlands as a student, one Forum Midlands as an ASW. I've got lots of 'God memories' of the place, and was interested to see what it would be like with more than 1000 people, rather than 1-300...

One thing that stuck out - and that I really appreciated - was the overall professionalism of the event. I'm biased because I 'work' with some UCCF friends, but it really was one of the better conferences I've been to. The PA/AV Kit was good, the program good, the resources on offer good, and the huge team of volunteers running the show knew what they were doing. Whatever you might say, UCCF know how to run a conference, in a way that practically honours God and models excellence. This is a good thing.

A packed, well-set up and big marquee full of people worshipping God together!

There were other good things, too. There was a real generosity prevalent throughout the conference. My 'ticket' was free, but there were lots of freebies going around, and great hospitality for both staff and students. Generosity has other effects too - and that was evident in the breadth of traditions represented amongst both students and UCCF staff, more of which later. Suffice to say, I was really appreciative of the generosity of the conference.

Running alongside the latter part of Forum was UCCF's first ever 'Student Worker Forum', which I was keen to ask different attenders about. It seemed to have been a great success, with some wonderful sessions and networking, and sharing in the main meetings with the 1000 or so students and UCCF staff!

So, what about the content? On the whole, I thought, very good! Terry Virgo skilfully led us in his warm, spirit-filled style through a few chapters of Romans, which was a model of how to preach, as far as I was concerned. We also had input from various UCCF staff, my particular favourite being Jason Clarke on the tuesday evening. He challenged us from John 2:1-11 to be three things: Involved (in this world), Tasting (the world to come) and Seeing (his glory). The standout one-liner for me (and many others, according to Twitter!) was simple;

"Do what you love and take Jesus with you"

There was also great input from Richard Cunningham, the classic mission talk from George Verwer (with obligatory globe jacket and slowly rotating giant inflatable globe!) and Tim Rudge. The other big highlight, in main-meeting terms, for me was Charlie Skrine's superb exposition of 1 Corinthians 15, with the starting theme 'being a CU leader is exhausting - why bother?', which became a brilliant telling of the story of the Gospel, with great observations about the body and the Resurrection, things that often are missing from conservative evangelicals. 

Tying the week together was a really clear driving vision for mission. This, however, was not at the reduction of other things, but instead basically focused. It meant that most of the 'tracks' and seminars were mission minded, but there was one afternoon where some really helpful and diverse 'conversations' were held - and on another day there were some good open forums about how UCCF works, and so on. I went along to 'A Conversation about Social Justice', run by my friend Gareth Davies from CARE, which was excellent, and spilled out into lots of other conversations! Essentially, whilst UCCF was clearly big on the main mission vision, there was good space to recognise other elements of what God is doing and is interested in, without detracting from the overall theme!

I also love the (as above photographed, packed!) seminar on Prayer, which was a track run by my friend (And Theology Network Staff Worker) Angus Moyes, and Hamish, another member of the Scottish UCCF Team. They carefully and powerfully lead us through what it is to pray, and what that means for mission. 

The final big positive for me is the thing I always love about CU's, even though we often get it wrong. Unity. It was wonderful to worship, pray and gather with people from across traditions. A particular highlight for me was the way we all, everyone in the main meeting, sang an acapella psalm together - because that is how some people worship week in week out. They have the grace to tolerate our normal(ish) 'contemporary' music, so it was great to try that style. I personally found it very powerful to sing scripture together, voices only. But then I'm an odd kind of Charismatic. 

John Clarke speaking at Student Worker Forum

Similar on the unity front was seeing John Clarke, who leads the Vineyard student taskforce, contributing to the aforementioned Student Worker Forum, a situation that I think really demosntrates UCCF's commitment to generous, gospel-centered unity. There was a fascinating interview between Terry Virgo and Richard Cunningham, which was puzzling to some, but I personally found quite encouraging. One of the other encouragements in the case of unity was Cunningham's humility in introducing 'prayer ministry' to the Forum family, which in his words was as a result of listening to other traditions. It was very special to pray for people in that ministry time.

All this said, there were a few things I wasn't one-hundred-per-cent convinced about. Whilst I loved worshipping with so large (and loud!) a bunch, I did feel (with the honourable exemption of the unaccompanied Psalm!) that the worship was very much of one kind, and that some may have felt excluded by it. Perhaps something to consider in the future. I also was very unconvinced by the usage of lights in worship - it was slightly odd to be less comfortable with that than I was at Momentum! My main beef with that, to be honest, is a general concern I have whenever we gather as Christians across churches (Which we should not give up doing!), that of explanation, explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it. 

Don't get me wrong. I loved Forum, and I hope I have an excuse to go again in some capacity. I'll certainly be encouraging student leaders I know to go again. I just hope that UCCF can maintain all the good they are historically known for (content, vision, unity, generosity, love of Doctrine and Scripture) whilst at the same time including the good they may not be used to (breadth, prayer ministry, open-ness to Charismaticism, generosity). In terms of my wider notion of being an ecumenical evangelical, Forum left me very encouraged for the future. Encouraged for this year of student mission. Encouraged for the work of the Gospel for the Kingdom of God in this country. But I'll say more about that as I conclude this 'EE' series...

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If this has whet your appetite, you might like my review of Terry Virgo's "The Spirit Filled Church", my post on Church Unity, and perhaps some of my recent posts on 'Charismatic Clarity'. If you are interested in Theology Network and how to study Theology 'Christian-ly', you might like a recent book review, and do check out the Theology Network Website!